History

The Star (originally known as the Evening Star and then the Toronto Daily Star) was created in 1892 by striking Afternoon News printers and writers, led by future Mayor of Toronto and social reformer Horatio Clarence Hocken, who became the newspaper's founder, along with another future mayor, Jimmy Simpson. The paper did poorly in its first few years. It prospered under Joseph "Holy Joe" Atkinson, editor from 1899 until his death in 1948.

Atkinson had a social conscience. He championed many causes that would come to be associated with the modern welfare state: old age pensions, unemployment insurance, and health care. The Government of Canada Digital Collections website describes Atkinson as "a ‘radical’ in the best sense of that term…. The Star was unique among North American newspapers in its consistent, ongoing advocacy of the interests of ordinary people. The friendship of Atkinson, the publisher, with Mackenzie King, the prime minister, was a major influence on the development of Canadian social policy."[6]

Atkinson became the controlling shareholder of the Star. The Toronto Daily Star was frequently criticized for practising the yellow journalism of its era. For decades, the paper included heavy doses of crime and sensationalism, along with advocating social change. From 1910 to 1973, the Star published a weekend supplement, the Star Weekly.

Its early opposition and criticism of the Nazi regime[7] saw the paper become one of the first North American papers to be banned in Germany.[8]

Until the mid-2000s, the front page of the Toronto Star had no advertising.

On May 28, 2007, the Star unveiled a redesigned paper that features larger type, narrower pages, fewer and shorter articles, renamed sections, more prominence to local news, and less so to international news, columnists, and opinion pieces.[10] However, on January 1, 2009, The Star reverted to its previous format. Star P.M., a free newspaper in PDF format that could be downloaded from the newspaper's website each weekday afternoon, was discontinued in October 2007, thirteen months after its launch.

Paywall

In October 2012, the Star announced its intention to implement a paywall on its website, thestar.com,[11] which was made effective on August 13, 2013. Readers with daily home delivery had free access to all its digital content. Those without a digital subscription can view up to ten articles a month.[12][13] The paywall does not apply to its sister sites, such as wheels.ca (automotive news and classifieds) or Workopolis (career search). However, during late 2013, the Star announced that it would end its paywall, which it did on April 1, 2015, amid its lack of digital subscriptions.[14]

Star Touch tablet app

On September 15, 2015, the Toronto Star released the Star Touch tablet app, which is a free interactive news app with interactive advertisements. At first, it is only available for the iPad, though it would be later introduced for Android tablets for fall 2015. Based on a similar app for Montreal-based La Presse released in 2013, Star Touch is the first such app for any English-language news organization, quality-wise.[15]

Atkinson Principles

Shortly before his death in 1948, Joseph Atkinson transferred ownership of the paper to a charitable organization given the mandate of continuing the paper's liberal tradition.[16] In 1949, the Province of Ontario passed a law (which was repealed in 2009)[17] barring charitable organizations from owning large parts of profit-making businesses[18] that effectively required the Star to be sold. The five trustees of the charitable organization circumvented the law by buying the paper themselves and swearing before the Supreme Court of Ontario to continue the Atkinson Principles:[19]

A strong, united and independent Canada

Social justice

Individual and civil liberties

Community and civic engagement

The rights of working people

The necessary role of government

Descendants of the original owners, known as "the five families", still control the voting shares of Torstar,[20] and the Atkinson Principles continue to guide the paper to this day. In February 2006, Star media columnist Antonia Zerbisias wrote on her blog:

“

Besides, we are the Star which means we all have the Atkinson Principles — and its multi-culti values — tattooed on our butts. Fine with me. At least we are upfront about our values, and they almost always work in favour of building a better Canada.[21]

”

Editorial position

Its precise position in the political spectrum — especially in relation to one of its principal competitors, The Globe and Mail — is at times disputed but the Star is generally considered to be the most liberal of Canada's major papers.[22] Long a voice of Canadian nationalism, the paper opposed free trade with the United States in the 1980s and has recently expressed concern about U.S. takeovers of Canadian firms.

Editorial positions have taken a more moderate stance after the rise of the political correctness at Canadian universities, opposed proportional representation, and yet called for more restrictive copyright laws.

In the early 2000s, the newspaper has promoted "a new deal for cities".

In popular culture

In 1998,[34] the Toronto Star purchased a majority stake in Sing Tao's Canadian newspaper, which it jointly owns with Sing Tao News Corporation.[35] Sing Tao (Canada) encountered controversy in April 2008, after media watchers discovered the paper had altered a translated Toronto Star article about the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games protests to adhere to Chinese government's official line.[34] Sing Tao's then editor Wilson Chan was fired over this.[36]

Publishers

Margins have declined and some losses have been recorded. In 2006, several financial analysts expressed dissatisfaction with The Star's performance and downgraded their recommendations on the stock of its parent company, Torstar. In October 2006, the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Star were replaced amid reports of boardroom battles about the direction of the company. A redesigned paper launched in May 2007. It featured 17% less space for editorial content and a greater emphasis on local coverage. However, the paper reverted to its pre-May 2007 design on January 1, 2009.

The Toronto Star has been profitable in most recent years. The residual strength of the Star is its commanding circulation lead in Ontario. The paper remains a "must buy" for most advertisers. Some competing papers consistently lose money, are only marginally profitable, or do not break out earnings in a way that makes comparison possible. However, the Star has long been criticized for inflating circulation through bulk sales at discount rates.

The advent of the National Post in 1998 shook up the Toronto newspaper market. In the upheaval that followed, editorial spending increased and there was much hiring and firing of editors and publishers. Toronto newspapers have yet to undergo the large-scale layoffs that have occurred at most other newspapers in Canada and the United States.

Competitive position

Since the mid-2010s, the sports and business sections are consolidated on some days and eventually, all weekdays.

The Star states that it favours an inclusive, "big tent" approach, not wishing to attract one group of readers at the expense of others. It publishes special sections for Chinese New Year and Gay Pride Week, along with regular features on real estate (including condominiums), individual neighbourhoods (and street name etymologies), shopping, cooking, dining, alcoholic beverages (right down to having an exclusive on the anti-competitive practices of the Beer Store that led to major reforms on the sale of alcohol in Ontario grocery stores in 2015 by Premier Kathleen Wynne and Ed Clark), automobiles (as Wheels), and travel destinations.

a community editorial board, whose members write opinion articles that sometimes criticize the paper

an annual competition honouring Toronto's best employers

an in-depth world news section called "World Weekly" on Saturdays, with a column by Tony Burman (this section is only available to residential subscriptions without any additional payment and the section contains no advertisements)

optional supplements on Friday/Saturday ("That's Puzzling!" (puzzle booklet with University of Torontosemiotics and linguistic anthropology professor Marcel Danesi as featured contributor)), Saturday (Starweek (television listings and episode summaries)), and Sunday (abridged version of The New York Times international section, New York Times Crosswords, editorials, and book reviews) ("That's Puzzling!", the "Starweek", and The New York Times supplements require separate additional payment)

Other notable features include:

The Star is one of only two Canadian newspapers that employs a "public editor" (ombudsman) and was the first to do so. Its newsroom policy and journalistic standards guide is also published online.[27]

Features

For the 2015 federal election, the Toronto Star endorsed the Liberal Party, stating that "The Liberal party under Justin Trudeau has crafted an alternative vision for the country that deserves the support of those who believe Canada can be more generous, more ambitious and more successful." They criticised the Conservatives for having a "destructive agenda" and stated that they "play shamelessly on public anxiety about terrorism, refugees and, of all unlikely things, the niqab."[26]

, who would later win the election.
John Tory, as with all the other major Toronto-based daily newspapers, it endorsed 2014 mayoral election In the [23]

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